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Influence of Miami Vice
The Influence of ''Miami Vice'' has been so great that it is today considered amongst the most influential television series ever made, and many aspects of the show have become pop culture icons. Many of its concepts and techniques, such as its heavy integration of contemporary music and its cinematic filming style, have become standard in modern TV shows, while the series' fashion design had a direct influence on the lifestyle choices of the time. Influence on Music The music used in the television series was initially merely the result of creative decisions made by the production team, but with the immense popularity of the show (and the proven impact of scenes featuring contemporary tracks, highlighted by the reception given to the "In The Air Tonight" scene), the process soon became influenced by record companies eager to have their artists featured on the show. The popularity of the music used led to the release of three soundtrack albums, Miami Vice, Miami Vice II and Miami Vice III, the first of which was a huge success and reached #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart. Musicians would clamour to have their songs used in the series, occasionally arranging with the production team to have a new track appear ahead of its commercial release, hoping to increase interest. The situation reached a point where some acts would compose and record tracks especially for use on the show. Often these songs were featured exclusively in the episodes in which they were used and on the associated soundtrack albums. "You Belong To The City" by Glenn Frey, "When The Rain Comes Down" by Andy Taylor and "Help Me Through The Night" by Phil Perry & Tim Truman were all recorded exclusively for the show, among others. Influence on Real World Trends Miami Vice had a direct influence on the fashion trends of the 1980s. Crockett and Tubbs popularized the pastel T-shirt and linen suit look to the point where today it is often considered to epitomize the clothing styles of the entire decade, despite the fact it actually only remained popular for a few years in the mid-1980s. Later trends established on the show, such as the harsh neon colors of Season 3, were also influential, although their popularity has not enjoyed the same lasting fame as the pastel look. Nevertheless, the styles portrayed in the latter seasons of the show remained popular into the early 1990s. Don Johnson's "designer stubble" was copied by men across America, even leading to the marketing of a specialized razor (initially called the "Miami Device", before the name was changed for fear of a legal suit) that would leave a very short layer of stubble on a man's face. After Six created "Miami Vice" dinner jackets, Kenneth Cole created Crockett and Tubbs shoes, and Macy's opened a dedicated "Miami Vice" section for young men. Miami Vice also generated huge interest in other equipment featured on the show. Consumer demand for the Bren Ten pistol Crockett used as his sidearm for the first two seasons became so great that Dornaus & Dixon was unable to meet its orders and went bankrupt in 1986. Sales for the Wellcraft SCARAB 38' KV went up 21% in a single year following the vessel's introduction to the series, and as a result Wellcraft produced a limited run of exact replicas. The 38' KV's "Miami Vice" color scheme was also made available on other boats in their range. The show had a huge effect on the city of Miami itself. Tourism in the city received a tangible boost as result of the series' popularity, and the renovation work carried out on dilapidated buildings by the the production team as part of filming led to something of a renaissance in the South Beach area -- other buildings and hotels were restored, contributing to the revitalization of the area in the 1990s and the influx of celebrities and luxury hotels and clubs in the 2000s. Today, the area is a mecca for the rich and famous. Influence on Television Many subsequent law dramas, such as Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue and Law & Order, though being markedly different in style and theme from Miami Vice, have followed the show's lead in breaking the genre's mould. Miami Vice has also been directly referenced in other television programmes, with shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy and Saturday Night Live often spoofing the themes made famous in the series. In 1984, before the show had even started, NBC produced a television special designed to preview the network's 1984-85 fall schedule, and included in that special was a skit called Miami Nice about a group of older women living in Miami (though the show was actually shot in Los Angeles, not Miami). The skit later evolved into the classic series The Golden Girls, which retained its "Miami Nice" nickname throughout it's run of seven seasons. In 1985, the WWE's talk-show Tuesday Night Titans ''aired a skit called ''Fuji Vice that involved two WWE wrestlers, "Magnificent" Don Muraco and manager Mr. Fuji as two Vice cops who help bring down a drug ring "by accident". In 1997, Philip Michael Thomas reunited with Don Johnson in the episode "Wild Card" of Johnson's next television series, Nash Bridges, also featuring a guest appearance by Meat Loaf playing a Vice-styled villain. In the scene where Johnson and Thomas first appear on-screen together, a version of the "Miami Vice Theme" can be heard playing in the background. Thomas' character would return in another Nash episode, appropriately titled "Out Of Miami", in the series' final season. In 2001, the E! network's series The E! True Hollywood Story devoted an episode to Vice, featuring then-new interviews with the show's cast (except for Don Johnson, who was busy working on Nash Bridges at the time; previously-recorded interviews with him were used instead). The episode reviewed the origins of the series, the making of the pilot, Vice's ''immense popularity in the mid-1980s, and its cancellation in 1989. The show's influence on television has not just been limited to American programmes. A 1991 feature-length Christmas special of celebrated British sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses featured the cast travelling to Miami and becoming accidentally involved with the head of a drugs cartel who often dressed in the type of casual clothing made famous by Miami Vice; the episode's name was "Miami Twice", an obvious play on the crime drama's title. More recently, the UK police procedural drama Ashes to Ashes, which is set during the 1980s, featured many elements that clearly paid homage to Vice, including a tense scene set to the song "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins in its second season. Several commercials have also played on the show's success. Ridley Scott directed a 1985 Pepsi commercial featuring Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett, alongside Glenn Frey (who appeared on the show as Jimmy Cole in the second season episode "Smuggler's Blues"). The advertisement also used Frey's song "You Belong To The City", which had originally been written especially for Miami Vice. In 2010 the Nike shoe company created an advert featuring NBA star LeBron James (who played for the Miami Heat) that parodied a number of pop culture ideas while he tried to determine what he wanted to do with his life. When he suggests going into acting, the Miami Vice logo suddenly appears, accompanied by Jan Hammer's "Crockett's Theme". In the following brief scene, Don Johnson (dressed as Crockett, complete with white blazer, pastel T-shirt and "designer stubble") gives typically Crockett-esque policing advice to LeBron, who is wearing one of Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs' trademark suits with tie. LeBron's response of, "Should I be writing this down?" is confidently confirmed by Crockett. Influence on Film Although sometimes heavily disputed by their producers, movies such as To Live and Die in L.A. (featuring Debra Feuer, John Pankow, Dean Stockwell and John Turturro), Bad Boys (featuring Kim Coates, Will Knickerbocker, Marc Macaulay and Julio Oscar Mechoso) and Bad Boys 2 borrowed heavily from the concept of Miami Vice, featuring two undercover cops going to extreme lengths to catch their target; Michael Mann even brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against the producers of To Live And Die In L.A. regarding its alleged plagiarism of the television series' concept. The Bad Boys films also highlight the stylish, glitzy yet ultimately seedy atmosphere of Miami's underworld that Vice focused heavily on. Mann's own film from the mid-1980s, Manhunter, is stylistically very similar to the television series, and features a large number of Miami Vice guest stars, including Garcelle Beauvais, Bill Cwikowski, Chris Elliott, Dennis Farina, Kim Griest, Michele Shay, Bill Smitrovich and Jim Zubiena, as well as Miami Vice regular Michael Talbott, although his single scene was deleted from the theatrical cut of the film. The film also uses the exact same font style and layout as the show for it's opening credits. In 2005, more than 20 years after Miami Vice first aired on television screens, Michael Mann returned to the franchise with the Miami Vice film adaptation, starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. Released on July 28, 2006, the movie took the characters and settings of the original series and updated them to the 21st century. While the film intentionally tried to distance itself from the show that spawned it, several references are still included, most notably the heavy inclusion of contemporary music and the plot elements (and even some dialogue) taken directly from the episode "Smuggler's Blues". The technique of removing all background sounds from an important scene and replacing them with a music track, pioneered in the famous "In The Air Tonight" sequence from the Vice pilot episode "Brother's Keeper", has also been heavily mimicked, and is especially prevalent in Michael Mann's movies (it can be seen in his films Manhunter, The Last Of The Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Collateral, Miami Vice and Public Enemies). The style has also been copied, to a lesser degree, in television shows. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Possibly the greatest homages to the show are the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and its prequel Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006), which, aside from the broad-ranging similarities (heavy inclusion of 80s music -- including new wave, glam metal and synthesizer pop -- dealings with organized crime, drug trafficking, styled cars, prostitution, pastel clothes etc), include several direct references to the show, not least of all the use of the word "Vice" in their titles. Perhaps the most prominent homage occurs when the player achieves a three-star wanted level or higher; along with traditional police squad cars, the player will find themselves being pursued by an unmarked police-issue "Cheetah", a car heavily modelled after the 1986 Ferrari Testarossa, driven by two unnamed, casually dressed undercover cops, one Caucasian and one African-American. Furthermore, the Cheetah they drive is often coloured white, and features the tan leather interior from the car used on show, not found on the games' regular Cheetahs. Another direct link to Miami Vice is the inclusion of "Crockett's Theme" on Vice City's in-game radio station Emotion 98.3. Many other popular songs that were used in Miami Vice are featured on the fictional radio stations in both games, including "Missing You" by John Waite, "Turn Up The Radio" by Autograph, "I Want To Know What Love Is" by Foreigner and "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. Also, the Vice City intro theme was composed very much in the style of Jan Hammer, specifically his "Miami Vice Theme", while the Vice City Stories theme was more in the rock style of Tim Truman. Aside from music, the games feature an extensive cast of well-known Hollywood actors voicing their characters, akin to the famously large number of guest stars featured in the television show. Most notable of these is Lance Vance, one of the primary characters in both Vice City games, who is voiced by none other than Philip Michael Thomas -- coincidentally, in the first game Vance is seeking to avenge the death of his brother, just like Tubbs in the pilot episode of the series. Another noteworthy appearance is by Phil Collins, as himself, in Vice City Stories, which even includes him performing a specially recorded rendition of his hit "In The Air Tonight" at an in-game concert during one of the missions. Vice City Stories also features interactions with a corrupt undercover law enforcement officer who dresses in a white suit, loafers and a pastel pink t-shirt, mimicking one of Crockett's famous Season 1-2 looks. Two of the in-game street gangs, the Cubans and the Haitians, wear the same clothing as two prominent extras from a scene in "Brother's Keeper", specifically the scene where Tubbs first arrives at Miami airport. Many vehicles in the city are modelled after vehicles from the TV series, including the "Squalo" (Crockett's first speedboat), the "Stinger" (Crockett's Daytona), the "Marquis" (the St. Vitus Dance) and the "Infernus" (a Lamborghini Countach, featured heavily in "Golden Triangle (Part II)" and "Bought and Paid For"). The custom shortened pump-action shotgun Tubbs used from Season 2 onwards also appears, as the "Stubby Shotgun". Category:Miscellanea